Disc drives are typical data storage systems and are commonly used in work stations, personal computers, portable computers and other computing systems to store large amounts of data in a form that can be readily available to a user. A disc drive includes a head disc assembly that is attached to a printed circuit board assembly. The head disc assembly includes a variety of components. The components include one or more discs having data surfaces that are coated with a magnetizable medium for storage of digital information in a plurality of circular, concentric data tracks. The disc(s) are mounted on a spindle motor that causes the disc(s) to spin and the data surfaces of the disc(s) to pass under respective aerodynamic bearing disc head sliders. The sliders carry magnetic transducers, which write information to and read information from the data surfaces of the discs.
With the rapid increase in a real density of the magnetizable medium, continued demand exists for disc drives having a small size suitable for use in handheld or portable devices, such as communication devices (e.g. cell phones), audio devices (e.g. digital music players), computing machines (e.g. personal data assistants), video recorders (e.g. digital cameras) and other small consumer applications. Small sized disc drives for use with these types of consumer products must be robust enough to withstand accidental drops and high operating shock and vibration levels.
In general, shock bumper designs for disc drives use hard and inflexible materials to absorb external shock. The thicker the hard and inflexible material, the more shock energy can be absorbed. For small sized disc drives, the spaced allotted for a shock bumper is limited. Therefore, the thickness of the material is also limited and allows for only a limited amount of shock energy to be absorbed.
Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions to these and other problems, and offer other advantages over the prior art.